Comments on: Do Amazon Reviews Count? http://ereads.com/2007/12/do-amazon-reviews-count.html Read the latest publishing news and provocative blogs by top commentators in the traditional and digital publishing fields. Mon, 21 May 2012 03:15:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: erica http://ereads.com/2007/12/do-amazon-reviews-count.html/comment-page-1#comment-3 erica Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:26:00 +0000 http://ereadsdev.com/?p=66#comment-3 Mr. Curtis is spot-on. Surveys have shown that online product reviews are important for almost all consumer products, including books. This is a great article siting some recent studies on online customer reviews: <a HREF="http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627465" REL="nofollow">http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627465</a>. One striking stat: 82 percent of people who socially research products prefer reading customer reviews to researching a product in-store with a knowledgeable sales associate. That's the equivalent of preferring Amazon reviews to a critic's review in the NYTimes! Publishers who are shying away from customer reviews for fear of publicly displaying negativity toward their authors need to get over it. Research has shown that the average user review online (across all categories) is a very positive 4.3 out of 5 anyway! Mr. Curtis is spot-on. Surveys have shown that online product reviews are important for almost all consumer products, including books. This is a great article siting some recent studies on online customer reviews: http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3627465. One striking stat: 82 percent of people who socially research products prefer reading customer reviews to researching a product in-store with a knowledgeable sales associate. That’s the equivalent of preferring Amazon reviews to a critic’s review in the NYTimes! Publishers who are shying away from customer reviews for fear of publicly displaying negativity toward their authors need to get over it. Research has shown that the average user review online (across all categories) is a very positive 4.3 out of 5 anyway!

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